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Rhubarb

Bumble berry pie is my absolute favorite pie of all time. For me, this pie screams comfort food! Whatever season, I could eat this pie, if only the ingredients were always in season. How I discovered bumble berry pie was at a farmer’s market. This Amish man would sell these delicious pies every Wednesday and Saturday. I had always loved strawberry rhubarb pies, but when I saw bumble berry, I was intrigued, I had to try it. I was instantly hooked, strawberry rhubarb shed a tear that day, because I moved on to better pie.

So you might be thinking, why the individual pies, verse the homey big pie? Well, for one, I didn’t have enough rhubarb on hand, opps. So what did I do, I made individual pies! Portion control, no sharing required and a nice amount of flaky crust in every bit! So, why don’t we make individual pies all the time!?

So I’ll let you in on a secret, I made my life easy and bought frozen raw pie dough. I know, shame on me. I used Trader Joe’s frozen pie dough, and can I tell you, that it came out so flaky and delicious! I would use it again in a heart beat.

I’ll let you in on another secret, don’t cover your leftovers with a plastic cover, or plastic wrap. The crust will lose it’s flaky crust. Instead, loosely cover you pie or storage container with foil.

This pie is a great end of the summer, beginning of fall pie. It’s fruity flavors are bright, but the warmth of the cinnamon and vanilla create a cozy feeling.

Instructions:
1. Chop fruit as specified above. In a large bowl, mix fruit, sugars, cinnamon and vanilla. Once mixed well. Add 1 tsp. of sifted cornstarch at a time and mix well. You will repeat this until each of the 4 tsp. are well incorporated. If you do not sift the cornstarch, you will end up with chunks of cornstarch throughout the fruit.

2. Roll out your pie dough and cut out 9 (4 inch) circles. Grease a muffin pan and line the pie dough in each round. Fill with the fruit filling just to the top.

3. Make sure to put a pan lined with foil under your muffin tin to catch liquid sugar. Cook for 40 – 45 minutes. Let cool and take a knife and round the edges, which will release them from the pan. Serve with vanilla ice cream and enjoy!

**For enough filling for a 9inch pie, multiply this recipe by 1.5.

I hope you try this recipe and love it! I promise you won’t regret it!

Every summer, my family and I go up to Madison, WI and spend the day. We sit behind the Union, walk and shop up and down state street and of course eat Orange Custard Chocolate Chip ice cream from Babcock Dairy.

This year we went to the farmers market and I bought a lot of rhubarb! So I randomly decided to make strawberry rhubarb jam. I guess not so randomly decided, since my Rhubarb Bread with Streusel Topping recipe has been such a hit, thanks to you guys! So I had to post something else with rhubarb! Any ways, I don’t have too much to say, other than it is damn good and really easy to make. People assume canning will be a painful process. If you enjoy jams, then I recommend you try canning at home. Even a beginner in the kitchen will have an easy time!

Instructions:
1. In a tall stock pot, fill with water and allow to come to a boil.

2. While the stock pot is heating up, chop your rhubarb and strawberries. In a sauce pan on medium heat, toss the rhubarb and strawberries with sugar. Stir frequently. Allow to come to a boil, it will start foaming. When foam starts, reduce heat to low. You should always see some bubbles appear at the surface, if not, raise your heat. Stir frequently and simmer on low for 15 minutes.

3. In the stock pot, sterilize the mason jar lids in simmering water for 5 minutes. Set aside on a clean towel. Place another towel over the sterilized lids.

4. After 15 minutes, the fruit should start looking translucent. At this point take the potato masher and mash the fruit. The mixture will thicken. Allow to simmer on low for 15 to 20 minutes. Stirring frequently. After 15 to 20 minutes, the jam should have thickened/reduced.

5. Take the glass mason jars and place in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove from the water and pour the hot jam into them, leaving just a little room from the top. Place the lids on the jars and tightly secure them on.

6. Place the filled jars in the boiling water, with 1 to 2 inches of water above the jars. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove jars and place on a towel and let cool for 24 hours. If you can press the top of the lid and it springs back, then it hasn’t been sealed properly and must be boiled for an additional 10 minutes.

Note: Once you have canned, you can’t use the lids again for future canning.

Like this:

It’s rhubarb season! For some reason or another I always assumed rhubarb was an end of the summer crop. In grade school, my neighbors had this small garden in their backyard, where they would grow tomatoes, peppers, herbs and rhubarb! They had so much rhubarb at the end of the summer that they would give my mom a couple of stalks. It wasn’t until the beginning of May when my favorite bloggers were baking up a storm with rhubarb, when I realized it was a spring vegetable. Is it a vegetable?

This recipe was what introduced me to rhubarb. I remember when it was on our kitchen counter for the first time and I asked, “What’s that?” And ever since, I’ve loved rhubarb! My favorite pies have rhubarb – I love the sweet and puckery taste from a strawberry rhubarb or bumble berry pie. I like to think of rhubarb as celery’s evil genius sibling. It looks similar to celery, but it has a red-pinkish hue, bitter if eaten raw, a pain in the ass to peel, but adds a sweet and/or tartness to baked goods.

So what does my mom decide to do when my neighbors give her a bunch of rhubarb? She made rhubarb bread! The story goes, that in college, her roommate’s mom made rhubarb bread a lot. Her roommate would be sent back to school with a loaf of rhubarb bread.

I haven’t had this bread since grade school, but when I followed the recipe, it tasted as I remembered! This bread isn’t tart what so ever! It’s sweet, but not too sweet and really moist. There’s a lot of brown sugar, but the sugar balances out the tart rhubarb. Oh, and the streusel topping you see on top of the bread, it’s like brown sugar sand that melts in your mouth! The type of sand that you wish flew into your mouth on a windy day at the beach.

See that streusel on the plate, doesn’t it look like sand!?

The hardest part about the this bread is prepping the rhubarb. It’s outer skin is very fibrous and harder to peel than celery. **Make sure you wear yucky clothes or an apron when peeling rhubarb, because red dye residue likes to splatter from the peel. Luckily it doesn’t stain as bad as beets.

I love eating this bread for breakfast! It’s a perfect way to start your day! I wish my old neighbors still lived next door, because I miss their rhubarb!

Instructions:
1. Wash and peel the rhubarb. Cut the rhubarb in a small dice, shown like the picture above. Set aside.

2. Mix together ingredients as listed, mixing in each as the other is well incorporated. (Before adding the rhubarb, see step 3). The batter should be thin.

3. Before adding the rhubarb, toss in a tablespoon of flour. Tossing rhubarb in flour will insure that the rhubarb doesn’t fall to the bottom of the batter before and during baking.

4. Mix the streusel together with a pastry blender, potato masher or crumble with finger tips.

5. Grease two loaf pans and fill 2/3 of the way and distribute the streusel topping evenly on both loaves. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, cover loaves loosely with aluminum foil after 30 minutes to insure the tops don’t burn.

These loaves freeze really well!

I hope you enjoy! If you know a better/easier way to peel rhubarb, let me know!